GREENSBORO, N.C. — 'Tis the season for making lists and at the very top of my Christmas plans list each year is the Gingerbread House Competition at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville. You can see it for free and it never disappoints.
Just this week, judges picked the winners from 200 entries. Bakers from over 22 states and Guatemala entered this year. The Grand Prize Winner is a duo from Fuquay Varina, NC. The Difficult Dessert Devotees won the bragging rights and the prize money as well.
The entry is called "Christmas at the Tongkonan". A Tongkonan is a traditional ancestral house for those in Indonesia. When you get up close to the house, you can see the roof is made of pasta shells! The winning house is now being displayed in the glass case for all to see, but you can see all the entries when you walk through the Grove Park Inn.
WFMY News 2 is highlighting the other North Carolina winners. A group from Mooresville named the China Grove Cousins won second in the Child Division (5-8 years old) with an entry called "Ready, Set, Snowwwww!!!"
It's a playful penguin igloo with a roof slide that is lined with colorful gumdrops. Penguins are playing outside, even making snow angels. The cookies at the bottom spell out the name of the entry.
The Fiddleheads from Clyde, North Carolina placed third in the Youth Division. The entry is called "Little Blue Truck's Christmas". The house includes pretzel rods which make up the log-cabin-style garage, which is the house for the truck. Cereal flakes make up the roof.
According to the Omni Grove Park Inn website, there are various days to view the houses:
The Gingerbread Display is available for resort guests to view 24/7 and to non-resort guests Monday - Thursday anytime and Sundays after 4 p.m., excluding holidays (Dec. 23-25, 30-31, and Jan. 1). The display is open as of Nov. 27.
